Top 10: last week’s most popular retail technology articles

These are the RTIH retail systems articles that caught your fancy last week, including Tesco Whoosh, Aldi UK, AiFi, Walmart, and Retail Technology Show 2022.

JD.com launches ochama robotics stores in the Netherlands

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has opened two automation powered ochama stores in the Netherlands.

These involve robots preparing parcels, and home delivery service.

The first two ochama pick-up shops are in Leiden and Rotterdam, with two more set to open in Amsterdam (Diemen) and Utrecht.

AiFi tech powers new Aldi UK checkout-free concept store

Discount retailer Aldi UK has launched its first checkout-free store.

The Aldi Shop&Go concept store in Greenwich, London, opened at 7am this morning for public testing, having been tested by staff members in recent months.

Situated on Greenwich High Street, it enables customers to complete their shop without scanning a single product, or having to go through a checkout.

They can download the Aldi Shop&Go app, which will allow them to enter the store, pick up their items, and then walk out when they have completed their shop.

Once a customer leaves the store they will then be automatically charged via their selected payment method and a receipt will appear in the app.

The system, provided by AiFi, uses specially positioned cameras.

Tesco Whoosh rapid grocery delivery service set for major expansion

Tesco’s one-hour delivery service Whoosh will be available from at least 600 of the grocery giant’s stores by the end of next year,

“It is a mission that customers now want and we’re clear on that,” CEO Ken Murphy said on Tesco’s Christmas trading call last week.

“Whether it’s incremental is hard to tell, but it’s somewhere we need to be and it needs to fit in with our overall proposition so customers can tap in to our wider strategy and are able to buy from us wherever and whenever.”

Ten retail technology funding rounds you need to know about

RTIH rounds up the retail tech ventures who have been making waves with major investments, including Wayve, Checkout.com, Flipdish, Placer.ai and Exotec.

Żabka Group taps AiFi tech for autonomous stores milestone

Żabka Group says that it now has the largest chain of autonomous stores in Europe after launching 25 Żabka Nano locations across Poland.

These operate in several formats such as standalone shipping container-based stores, traditional bricks and mortar and store within a store points of sale, each leveraging AI powered computer vision technology created in cooperation with AiFi.

Autonomous stores surge - Answering the key questions around this technology

Check out this rather excellent article by Diana Morato, Chief Revenue Growth Officer at Sensei.

Checkout-free stores - Is a hybrid model the best way forward?

Checkout-free stores are set for rapid international expansion in 2022, with the addition of more non-food locations, and increased competition for Amazon, says GlobalData.

Our Editor, Scott Thompson, asks: is a hybrid approach the way of the future?

Retail Technology Show 2022 - don’t delay, register today

Registrations for Retail Technology Show, a new event organised by Nineteen Group, are now open.

Taking place at London’s Olympia on 26th-27th April, the event’s mission is to “bring together the brightest minds in retail and future forward technology providers”.

Sessions raids BrewDog for Commercial Director appointment

Sessions, a startup which provides UK foodie entrepreneurs with a platform to sell their products, has appointed Jack Anderson as Commercial Director.

He joins from UK-based brewery and pub chain BrewDog where he served as Global Retail Growth Director and was responsible for scaling the business in the UK and internationally through securing sites for bars and hotels as well as growing the licensing proposition with multiple large deals.